CD: to give or to sell (and for how much)?

marlinspike

[font=Geneva, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hey, I got this e-mail and was wondering what you guys thought. Can I get money for them? Keep in mind that the shots are not the best http://davidson.smugmug.com/Sports/118861 - the password is davidson - no caps) and that this is a small school so I don't want to make any enemies. Do you think this e-mail looks like they'd be willing to pay? What do you think is fair?
"I wondered what your policy is on using your photos. Really like the work you do, but want to respect your copyright privileges. If you don't mind sharing them, I would love to get a CD with our action photos. Obviously we would give you full credit for any use in media guides, etc"
This was from the head coach (whom I hadn't sent an e-mail with links to, so I guess one of the players told him).
Thanks,
Richard [/font]

PossumCorner

What happened - did you get in touch with him?

It doesn't appear to me that they wished to pay, or rather it appears that they hope that you will not ask for payment.

When he says: "If you don't mind sharing them ... we would give you full credit for any use .." my guess would be that he hopes or expects that you will respond generously and say "of course you can have them".

StevenV

I'd also love to hear what you ended up doing. Since I shoot mostly high school sports, I get this sort of request too for yearbooks etc. I've been asking for at least a discount on the books my sons buy (If I got a request from other schools I'd ask for more*) and I don't give them all my pictures, I make them select individual shots and deliver a CD with just those.

* I let my school teams and orgs know that they're getting my shooting services as a parent volunteer/donation. When I was asked by another school's band to come to one of their events I quoted (and received) a shooting fee.

marlinspike

I haven't responded yet, mostly because I've just been too busy. I think I'll let him have a CD, but I'll ask that he keep the files to himself, i.e. not make them available to players and parents. This is largely because I found out the guy who shoots for sports info (who is already paid by the school for his photos) will be giving him a cd as well.

JimM

I would give him a CD for promo use only with your favorite shots. This is good PR, and you would hate to not have them allow you on the field at a later date.

bham

marlinspike wrote:

I haven't responded yet, mostly because I've just been too busy. I think I'll let him have a CD, but I'll ask that he keep the files to himself, i.e. not make them available to players and parents. This is largely because I found out the guy who shoots for sports info (who is already paid by the school for his photos) will be giving him a cd as well.

The school may pay the photographer only for images they actually use in brochures, media guides, online, etc. I would make sure and mark the files with my copyright, and contact info, that way if the somehow end up some where then you deserve the going rate. Also I would make the images low res. If he truely has no specific use in mind this shouldn't matter, but if he wants some great images free, he ain't gettin it.

Even small schools have a budget for media guides, etc. And usually the photographer who shoots for the school spends more time shooting the high dollar sports, football, basketball.

GREAPER

marlinspike wrote:

I haven't responded yet, mostly because I've just been too busy. I think I'll let him have a CD, but I'll ask that he keep the files to himself, i.e. not make them available to players and parents. This is largely because I found out the guy who shoots for sports info (who is already paid by the school for his photos) will be giving him a cd as well.

I read this post the other day, and didn't respond becasue I was not sure what my opinion was, but the more I thought about it...

The other guy was getting paid to shoot, you were not. I think I would give then low res copies with a copyright notice on them. Put your contact info on the CD, and if they ever wanted to use them, I would want the going rate. If thats not good enough, let them use lesser shots from the guy they already paid. You could also consider letting them know that they could chose instead to hire you.

I know that we all feed good when our photos are wanted, and better if they are published, but the flip side is that people have gotten use to the idea that photography is easy, and they should not have to pay to get images. They feel that images on the web are up for grabs.